Those who rushed into bitcoin over the past two years are now heading for exits and this is not a good sign for the market.
Public companies, once seen as long-term holders, are increasingly selling bitcoin as prolonged price weakness weighs on balance sheets and strategic plans.
Take Empery Digital (EMPD), which on Wednesday announced it sold 370 BTC at an average price of $66,632, generating $24.7 million, leaving the company with 2,989 BTC. The firm used a portion of the proceeds to fully repay its outstanding loan and also released approximately 1,800 BTC previously held as collateral.
Empery Digital started building its bitcoin treasury in July 2025 and accumulated a peak position of around 4,000 BTC. The firm’s shares are down 75% from their 2025 high of $15.80.
Genius Group (GNS), an AI-powered, bitcoin-focused education company that held up to 440 BTC last March, has completely sold its stash. Recently, it liquidated its last remaining 84 BTC to repay $8.5 million in debt. The company stated that it will resume building its bitcoin coffers when it believes that market conditions are more favorable.
This trend is not limited to only medium players. Riot Platforms (RIOT), one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining companies in the US, has also reportedly sold, according to blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain.
The company reportedly moved 500 BTC for about $34.13 million on Wednesday as it continues to tap its bitcoin coffers to fund its pivot to AI and high-performance computing, a strategy increasingly seen across the mining industry.
Riot sold approximately $200 million worth of bitcoin in the last two months of 2025. Riot Platforms has accumulated bitcoin continuously through its mining operations, rather than adopting a single start date for a financial strategy, reaching a peak holding of over 19,000 BTC. The company now has about 17,500 BTC.
Meanwhile, Bhutan’s government continues to reduce its bitcoin holdings after selling a total of 3,103 BTC. A single transaction alone on March 30 is said to have liquidated 375 BTC, further trimming its position, according to Glassnode data. Bhutan’s government built its bitcoin holdings over several years through state-backed mining, reaching a peak of over 13,000 BTC in October 2024.
While the recent trend of liquidations is certainly disappointing for bulls, all is not lost yet.
Public bitcoin treasury companies still hold about 1,164,800 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. That’s over 5% of the total BTC supply of 21 million.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was changing hands at $66,500, down more than 2% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk data.
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